After months of waiting I finally got to into the National Beijing Stadium. I went to the IAAF Race Walking Challenge Women’s race in the afternoon. The men’s 20 kilometer race was held in the morning. It was quite a warm day in Beijing, so the men got a better deal.

Security was very tight going into the stadium. No food or drinks are allowed to be taken into the stadium. My bag was search thoroughly even after they put it through the x-ray machine. The police said my camera, a Canon DSLR was “for professsional use” and couldn’t be taken in. I have seen many Chinese with SLR and telescopic lenses so there was no way I was going to let them stop me from taking in my camera. Someone else eventually came over and said it was ok.

The stadium is a great sporting facility. The seats are fairly comfortable and there is fairly good leg room. I could only go to the lower deck, but I think even from the top deck you would still feel like you were close to the action. Chinese spectators were going crazy taking pictures and videos. They looked excited to be there and I am sure there were a few buses that probably traveled from outside of Beijing to attend the event. I had a couple of Chinese ladies taking pictures of me, which felt a bit strange.

Jared Tallent from Australia won the men’s race, followed by Wang Hao from China in second place and Eder Sanchez from Mexico came third. China dominated the women’s event. Liu Hong, China came first, followed by Yang Yawei and Shi Yang in second and third place respectively.